A
Herriman magician started sharing his expertise with local children in a new
program where magic tricks aren’t the only guise.

“The
whole magic course is an illusion,” said Mont Dutson, the instructor who’s
known as “Mont Magic” among his students and audiences. “The idea is, let’s get
kids out of the screens and technology because they are losing interpersonal
skills, so that was the motivating force.”

The
magic school course is intended to teach students to be respectful, prepared,
enthusiastic, confident, humble, creative, authentic and giving while also teaching
them eight close-up magic tricks.

“There’s
just something about when you do a magic trick and hook it with a thought,”
Dutson said. “People remember magic because it is impressive and entertaining,
and so you hook something onto it, like these types of life lessons, and
they’ll remember that, too.”

By
the end of the eight-week course, students can make it appear as though they
can balance a playing card on another playing card without any strings or
safety nets, restore a toothpick from broken to whole, change the signage on a
document while someone is holding it and perform other basic tricks.

“It’s
amazing to learn something that can make all of your friends like, ‘Whoa,’”
said McKay Peterson, 10, who recently finished Dutson’s course at the J.L.
Sorenson Recreation Center in Herriman.

And
although he enjoyed learning the tricks, McKay said “life lessons” were the
best things he learned from Dutson.

“I
learned that if you are respectful, then you can be nice to other people, and
it will make everyone happy that you are not a jerk,” he said. “And then
creativity helps you with your mind, so you could learn more.”

McKay
and four other boys were the first students to take magic lessons from Dutson
at the J.L. Sorenson Recreation Center. Their session wrapped up in March.

Dutson’s
Salt Lake School of Magic uses the “Discover Magic” curriculum created by
Michael Ammar, a world-renowned magician who won the Gold medal in the World
Sleight-of-Hand Championship in Switzerland for his close-up magic tricks.

Dutson,
a magician of 30 years, and his wife, Chris, formerly a teacher for gifted and
talented students, brought the classes to the Marv Jensen Recreation Center at
the end of 2015 and expanded the program to J.L. Sorenson Recreation Center in
Herriman in January 2017.

They
said they plan to expand the program to the Holladay Lions Recreation Center
later this year if there’s enough interest in that area.

Although
their program is new, it is already gaining national attention. The couple won
the “Best New School Directors” award at the Discover Magic conference in
Vegas. There are about 100 chapters worldwide.

“We
didn’t expect to win anything because our program is very new, and we don’t
have very many kids at our sessions yet, so it was just an amazing honor,” Chris
Dutson said.

Mont
Dutson said his favorite part about teaching magic is seeing children’s
confidence increase. One student came to magic school with hunched shoulders
and a whispered tone, but he didn’t end magic school that way, he said.

“It
looked like almost each time he came back he would stand up a little straighter
and be a little more interactive, and his parents told us they were amazed at
what he had done,” he said.

The
same boy went on to perform a magic show for a family party, which gave him
more confidence, Mont Dutson said.

Mont
Dutson’s goal whenever possible is to help his students get in front of
audiences to perform their magic tricks. Learning magic is two-fold, he said: learning
the tricks and learning how to present.

A
section of every two-hour class with “Mont Magic” involves performing for the
class. Mont Dutson also invites his students to attend his live performances at
libraries and perform one of the tricks they have learned. So far, four of his students
have taken him up on this offer.

When
he’s not doing library performances or teaching magic school, Mont Dutson can
often be found doing magic tricks at birthday parties and in school assemblies.
One of his students performed at his first birthday party gig a few months ago,
and Mont Dutson jokingly told him that they’re now competitors.